Enery set a precedent, and others are now following it: after the photovoltaic system at the Generali Arena, another major sports venue in Vienna—the Ernst Happel Stadium—has now been equipped with solar panels.
Back in 2018, the redesigned Generali Arena was presented as a flagship ecological project, environmental awareness, and sustainability. The PV system on the roof of FK Austria Wien’s stadium already supplied large parts of the venue at that time, including the academy, office areas, and pitch heating, with a total output of 340 kWp. That made the stadium in Vienna’s Favoriten district the first major sports venue in Austria to generate clean electricity from a rooftop solar installation.
Sustainability in More Than One Sense
In September 2024, Enery took the next step as a sustainability pioneer in Viennese professional football. Together with ET König and E-König, the company expanded the existing PV system at the Generali Arena. Additional modules were installed on the roof of the north stand, with further modules integrated into the southeast, east, west, and southwest stands.
As a result, the installed capacity of the system operated by Enery rose by around 545 kWp to just under 825 kWp. Since then, Austria Wien has been producing an additional 530,000 kWh of green electricity per year, with a self-consumption rate of around 65 percent. The associated annual CO2 savings amount to 71.89 tonnes—equivalent to planting more than 3,300 trees.
Solar panels on the roof of the Generali Arena.
The Generali Arena has clearly become a model for other major sports venues in Austria. After the Hofmann Personal Stadion in Linz was fitted with solar panels, the City of Vienna has now equipped Austria’s largest football stadium, the Ernst Happel Stadium, with a photovoltaic system as well. The installation comprises 9,000 PV modules and has annual output of 3,880 MWh. That corresponds to the yearly electricity consumption of around 1,100 households—more than the stadium itself requires—making the rooftop system one of the largest in the capital.
Massive Expansion Is Still Needed
Enery’s example is continuing to shape other projects, too. Plans already exist to add PV systems to the next expansion phase of the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz and to the Merkur Arena in Graz as part of future development. At the same time, experts agree on one key point: even a major expansion of integrated PV will not be enough on its own to achieve Austria’s climate goals.
Professor Hubert Fechner of the Austrian photovoltaic technology platform recently emphasized in a study that ground-mounted solar is indispensable. According to that analysis, rooftops and other built structures in Austria could still accommodate additional installations equivalent to around 10.7 TWh, but that potential alone is not sufficient. To meet national climate targets, photovoltaic output must increase by at least 11 TWh by 2030 under the Renewable Expansion Act and by 21 TWh by 2040 under the Integrated Grid Infrastructure Plan. In Fechner’s view, the technical potential on buildings and existing infrastructure is simply insufficient to meet the required targets.
The study therefore points to substantial additional potential in ground-mounted PV and in combining photovoltaics with agricultural use through agri-PV. Here too, Enery has been acting as a pioneer—not just in Austria, but across Central and Eastern Europe. With a portfolio currently generating almost 700 GWh of clean electricity from 490 MW of installed capacity and supplying 277,706 households, the company remains at the forefront of the transition to sustainable energy in the region.